The present invention relates to packaging, and particularly to a packing system capable of protecting fully-baked pastry shells from the rigors normally associated with commercial shipping and distribution.
While the availability of fully-baked pastry shells increases the convenience for preparing desserts and main meal portions employing them, pastry shells are extremely fragile and are easily damaged during commercial handling. The proper design of a shipping container for fully-baked pastry shells must be capable of protecting one of the most fragile food products at reasonable costs.
According to one prior art attempt to package pie crusts, Griffith et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,407,079 packages graham cracker crusts, uncooked pie dough, or other prepared or partially prepared pastry products by packaging the individual crusts, maintained within metal baking pans, one on top of another, and holding a stack of crusts within a packaging receptacle which prevents movement of the stack within the receptacle. Compression of the individual crusts within the stack requires that the pans and the crusts retain sufficient resilience or spring so that they exert a counter thrust against the bottom and cover of the receptacle to assure that looseness will not develop after the package is completed. Packaging fully-baked pie or other pastry crusts in the nested relationship under compression as disclosed by Griffith et al would lead to unacceptably high levels of breakage caused by the packaging alone.
According to another prior art attempt at providing the convenience of formed pastry products at home, Munter et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,919 describe a frozen, pre-prepared shell packaged along with a food material containing a normally-liquid component. The shell is positioned over a centrally-depressed receptacle containing normally-liquid material by means of an outwardly and downwardly extending rim around the receptacle. As distributed, the pastry shell and the normally liquid material are frozen. To prepare the products for consumption, the combined package is heated to liquify the ingredients of the filling material, and the package is then inverted to permit the liquid ingredients to fill the pastry shell for final baking. While products of this type may offer a degree of convenience, they do not solve the basic problem of providing a simple and effective packaging system for protecting fully-baked pie crusts, not packaged with a filling material, against the repeated impacts and shocks under varying ambient conditions which are typical of commercial handling and distribution.
There remains a present need for a packaging system capable of protecting fully-baked pastry shells from structural damage or other deterioration from the point at which they leave the preparation site to the point at which they are unpacked for use.